2010 Programme: Festival weekend overview

The Festival weekend includes more than 70 debates which are listed below ordered by time slot and room. To see Saturday or Sunday sessions only, select the day you want from the menu on the left or select sessions by Theme.

Or view and print out the Timetable as a two-page PDF.

Saturday 30 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Trust in an age of cynicism
Battle for Medical Ethics Lecture Theatre 1
Ageing and medicine: quality versus quantity?
Battle for Social Policy Courtyard Gallery
What's the point of the social sciences?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
Happy-clappy architecture: designing for well-being
Café Controversies Café
Obama's America: is racism history?
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
What makes life sacred?
Provocation Zone Student Union
Going nowhere? Staying local in a global village
Saturday 30 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Lunchtime Debates Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Behind closed doors: privacy vs transparency?
Battle for Medical Ethics Lecture Theatre 1
Alternative medicine: the pros and cons
Battle for Social Policy Courtyard Gallery
Is the Big Society the good society?
Lunchtime Debates Lecture Theatre 2
Economists behaving badly?
Lunchtime Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Your conscience, my health: the right to refuse?
Lunchtime Debates Student Union
Plug in, turn on, drive off: the future of cars?
Saturday 30 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
The empty square: the public engaged or imagined?
Battle for Medical Ethics Lecture Theatre 1
Rationing and medicine: what price life?
Battle for Social Policy Courtyard Gallery
Too much, too young: why is policy obsessed with teenage mums?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
From banks to BP: can we trust big business?
Café Controversies Café
Post-Lula Brazil: country of the future?
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Worth three tenors? The value of opera
Provocation Zone Student Union
Should apes have rights?
Saturday 30 October: 3.30pm-5.00pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Is the West still the best?
Battle for Medical Ethics Lecture Theatre 1
Patient centred healthcare: the right to choose?
Battle for Social Policy Courtyard Gallery
Early intervention: saving children from their future?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
Choosing tomorrow's children
Café Controversies Café
Negotiating South Africa's past: can we forgive and forget?
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Instrumental music: should music be a tool of social policy?
Provocation Zone Student Union
What are universities for?
Saturday 30 October: 5.15pm-6.30pm
Head to Head Debates Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
The great population debate: too many carbon footprints?
Battle for Medical Ethics Lecture Theatre 1
Debating Matters International Final: Organ Donation - UK versus India
Battle for Social Policy Courtyard Gallery
Doting Dads
Thought for the day Lecture Theatre 2
Bookshop Barnie at the Battle: Voodoo Histories
Thought for the day Café
Africa and oil
Thought for the day Henry Moore Gallery
The war on alcohol: new puritanism or healthy sobriety?
Thought for the day Student Union
Political graffiti or self-important art?
Sunday 31 October: 9.45am-10.30am
Breakfast Banter Lecture Theatre 1
Are we still a classless society, Mr Cameron?
Breakfast Banter Courtyard Gallery
Electoral Reform: purple revolution or middle-class obsession?
Breakfast Banter Lecture Theatre 2
Fans or financiers: who should own football?
Breakfast Banter Café
Can you parlez-vous? Why learning languages matters
Breakfast Banter Henry Moore Gallery
Slippery when wet: is health and safety a left-right issue?
Breakfast Banter Student Union
Blue-skies thinking is dead: long live blue-skies thinking?
Sunday 31 October: 10.45am-12.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Whose social justice is it anyway?
Battle over Scientific Evidence Lecture Theatre 1
What science can and cannot tell us
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Don't look back: why does history matter?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
Are we all cooperative now? The battle over employee ownership
Café Controversies Café
What makes a good teacher?
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Stop the press: journalism in jeopardy?
Provocation Zone Student Union
Rape and the law: he said, she said?
Sunday 31 October: 12.30pm-1.30pm
Head to Head Debates Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Prosperity without growth: a contradiction in terms?
Battle over Scientific Evidence Lecture Theatre 1
Can we trust the evidence? The IPCC - a case study
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Losing our marbles? Who owns culture?
Lunchtime Debates Lecture Theatre 2
Vampire literature: the crisis of being human
Lunchtime Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Crimes against humanity and international law: justice without borders?
Lunchtime Debates Student Union
Generation Wars: Baby Boomers versus Generation Y
Sunday 31 October: 1.45pm-3.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Engineering the future: cautionary tale or utopia?
Battle over Scientific Evidence Lecture Theatre 1
Policy-based evidence?
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
What have the ancient Greeks done for us lately?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
An inspector calls: why are crime novels so popular?
Café Controversies Café
Teachers and parents: enemies or allies?
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
The Catholic Church: more sinned against than sinner?
Provocation Zone Student Union
Trafficking: new slave trade or moral panic?
Sunday 31 October: 3.45pm-5.15pm
Keynote Controversies Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
What does it mean to be a liberal today?
Battle over Scientific Evidence Lecture Theatre 1
End of the peer revue: has the peer review process lost credibility?
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Memorialising the Holocaust: the challenge of history?
In Conversation Salons Lecture Theatre 2
A helping hand? Sportsmanship and cheating
Café Controversies Café
Faith Schools: inspiration or indoctrination?
Frame Debates Henry Moore Gallery
Innovative engineering: within limits?
Provocation Zone Student Union
Bikinis, burqas and flat brown shoes: female role models in the 21st Century
Sunday 31 October: 5.30pm-6.30pm
Thought for the day Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
From banning burqas to B&B bigots: can Europe tolerate religious tolerance?
Thought for the day Lecture Theatre 1
The energy challenge: can we keep the lights on?
Battle for the Past Courtyard Gallery
Archaeology: a load of old rubbish?
Thought for the day Lecture Theatre 2
Poetry and the tyranny of relevance
Thought for the day Café
From religious bliss to well-being: what does happiness mean today?
Thought for the day Henry Moore Gallery
Austerity blues or going for growth?
Thought for the day Student Union
Couture Wars: the politics of fashion
Sunday 31 October: 6.30pm-7.30pm
What next for...? Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
What next? The battle between optimism and pessimism

Festival Buzz

Too Many Laws? - John Cooper - Judges should fix bad laws

"Of all the political and cultural festivals, none beats the Battle of Ideas for its eclecticism and willingness to invite controversial and absorbing debate."
John Kampfner, Chief executive, Index on Censorship; former editor, New Statesman